Have you used a single-use plastic straw recently?

Plastic straws are piercing wildlife, especially marine life. We use millions of straws every day and most of those end up in our oceans, polluting the water and having a negative impact on our marine life.

All across the globe, we have seen innovations from stainless steel straws, to bamboo straws being developed to offer more sustainable solutions for those who can’t help it but suck.

But why can’t we just stop sucking?

Why, can’t we just wake up and ban plastic straws?

I have become extremely paranoid these days when I sight plastic straws. This always leads me to think of the gruesome videos of turtles having plastic straws being pulled out of their heads. A MUST watch below.

Human is to err and this is majorly how plastic straws easily end up in our waterways. Here, it breaks down into small pieces of plastics known as “microplastics” thus posing a major threat to fish and other marine life.

It is unfortunate that not much attention has been done on single-use plastics on a wider level. Most people think, well, we can just recycle all these plastics because we can’t live without them. Well, we are wrong. Single-use plastics are having a damaging impact on us and our ecosystem and we don’t realize it.

It has been said over and over again our oceans will be filled with plastics and not marine life by 2050. This may look so far off but it’s not about us, we have a future generation ahead and the mistakes we make now will affect them in a very huge way and we will be blamed for all of it. “Why didn’t you do something” they will say. I don’t want to be faced with such questions and neither should you.

If you want to put an end to this, it’s as simple as starting with where you are. One way is by refusing plastic straws. If a video of a turtle doesn’t move you in any way then you must be a heartless human being only concerned with the welfare of their own and not others, including plant and other animal life.

Another way is by being a diligent citizen of the one place we call home and always purchasing products with the waste end in mind. Let’s be conscious. Since we are speaking about straws, let’s think of reusable, biodegradable or edible straws. Locally available eco-friendly straws include Green. thing Kenya which distributes stainless steel straws in beautiful colors and Enviro Straw Kenya which produces paper straws – effective for the hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, fast food joints, supermarkets, clubs, etc.)

And finally, one of the best ways we can put an end to this is by lobbying for the ban plastic straws and other single-use plastics and advocating for reusable and biodegradable items. Let’s start educating ourselves and all citizens in general on the dangers these plastics have on our planet.

Yes, Sweden may be running out of waste which they recycle, but until we get to the point where, especially as Africa, we can be able to recycle our waste to produce energy, we should act now. It’s worthy to note that, plastic straws are very light to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter. They may easily slip through sorting screens combine with other materials and since they are too small to separate, they will end up contaminating recycling loads or getting disposed of as garbage.

Sweden’s recycling plant could be effective but before it can be implemented in Africa, we should also remember we have other types of waste which also includes the organic waste that needs to be managed. We should also consider the level of accountability as a nation. We should waste less in the first place.

With better management, effective communication, innovation and support by government stakeholders, we can be able to end a crisis which has already began.